The invention may be related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/987,806, filed Nov. 12, 2004, and entitled “Infrared and Visible Fusion Face Recognition System”. The invention may also be related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/987,368, filed Nov. 12, 2004, and entitled “Infrared Face Detection and Recognition System”. These above-mentioned patent applications are incorporated herein by reference. The assignee of these patent applications is the same assignee of the present invention.
Other related patent documents may include U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,260 B1, issued Apr. 9, 2002, entitled “Near-IR Human Detector”, and by Pavlidis et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,049 B2, issued Apr. 6, 2004, entitled “Near-Infrared Disguise Detection”, and by Pavlidis et al.; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/077,672, filed Feb. 15, 2002, entitled “Near-Infrared Method and System for Use in Face Detection”, and by Pavlidis et al.; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. The assignee of these patent documents is the same assignee of the present invention.
Current biometric sensors based on measuring fingerprint identity or hand geometry sensors are of significant interest to a variety of industries and applications. The security industry is constantly seeking sensors that identify certain specific persons to allow access to a secured area, a device such as a computer or other electronic equipment, or a cell phone.
However, biometric sensors that rely on a particular property of a person, such as a fingerprint, can be defeated. If a rubber cast  or cutout of a fingerprint is used, the device will recognize the correct print, even if it is not being used by the person to whom it belongs. Photographs of irises have been used to thwart iris detection. Thus, access to secure property would be compromised.
Currently there are no devices that prevent synthetic objects to be substituted for human skin in the biometric sensor industries. It would be a great advance in the art if a device could be provided that would accurately identify the presence of human skin in a situation where an individual's specific and unique characteristic could then be recognized.
It would be another advantage in the art if the presence of human skin could be determined before a biometric sensor determines the existence of a specific person.
Yet another advantage would be if a device could be provided that would be simple and inexpensive to manufacture, small in size for incorporation into existing biometric sensors, and easy to use to permit or deny access to the biometric sensor.
Other advantages will appear hereinafter. 